This invention relates to a crimp tool for crimping a conductor together with a terminal, and particularly to a crimp tool having an adjustment member to adjust the jaws thereof.
It is a common practice to connect a conductor to a terminal device shown in FIG. 1 or 2 by using a crimp tool which has clamping jaw members shown in FIGS. 2A or 2B. A conventional crimp generally includes two clamping members movable between a clamping position and a releasing position and two handle members connected to the clamping members. The clamping members may incorporate either one of the jaw members shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Since the wire and the terminal are slightly resilient, in many cases, a tight engagement is not achieved therebetween after they are released from the conventional crimp tool. This is because the clamping members of the conventional crimp tool move to the releasing position as soon as the pressure on the handles is released. It is necessary to apply a sufficient pressure on the handles until the wire and the terminal are engaged firmly with each other. Moreover, the clamping jaws of the conventional crimp tools are found to be ineffective when they are used for a conductor with a large cross-section since, in this case, the clamping face of the jaws cannot be in a parallel relationship with the face of the object therebetween and thus the object cannot be crimped effectively.
Many improvements have been made in the crimp tools. One of the improved crimp tools includes a ratchet-and-pawl mechanism which prevents the handles of the tool from moving to their released position after the handles are squeezed and the pressure applied thereon is removed.